Martyr Demetrius with his wife and son, at Skepsis on the Hellespont

The Holy Martyrs Demetrius, his wife Euanthea, and their son Demetrian.

St Demetrius was a prince and prefect of the city of Skepsis in the Hellespont. St Cornelius the Centurion (September 13), the first Gentile converted to Christ by the Apostle Paul, came into his city preaching the Gospel.

St Cornelius sowed the seeds of Christianity among many of the inhabitants of Skepsis, and so the pagans arrested him and brought him to trial before the prefect Demetrius. In vain he demanded that the saint renounce Christ, and finally handed him over for torture.

St Cornelius bravely endured the torture, while in turn urging the prefect to forsake his pagan errors and turn to the true faith in Christ. Led into a temple of idols, St Cornelius destroyed the pagan temple and the idols standing in it by his prayer.

Persuaded of the truth of Christianity by the saint’s preaching and by his miracles, the prefect Demetrius himself came to believe in Christ and was baptized with all his family. Because the saints now believed in Christ, the pagans threw the newly-converted family into prison where they were starved to death.

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The Orthodox Church in America

The Mission of The Orthodox Church in America, the local autocephalous Orthodox Christian Church, is to be faithful in fulfilling the commandment of Christ to “Go into all the world and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit…”